Slave To The Misery
by Sycho Seth Burns
Summary: Re-write of old story of same name. Marinus used to live quite contentedly, with dreams of becoming a modest painter. But after a horrible "accident" he's left alone and broken. To find peace he must mend his ruined soul, and to keep the world free he must defeat a mysterious figure who may very well be the source of Marinus's suffering...
1. Prologue

**Woo, only took me what, over half a year? Yeah, a mixture of schoolwork, problems with creative process, and procrastination on my part halted lots of work getting done for a while. This one chapter has been written and rewritten on my computer for a while and well probably won't come out the way I want to a tee, but I gotta focus less on that and more on enjoying on what I'm writing. The two previous stories "Slave to the Misery" and "Fire in the Sky" will be deleted either before or after this is uploaded, just for a heads-up.**

* * *

 **Prologue**

* * *

Fire was all around, it was so high that it looked like Hell itself was rising up to the human world. The night sky had a dark red tint to it and the smoke hid the stars from the view of anyone who would look up. People were running left and right, screaming out for some sort of salvation. The fire crawled from building to building, slowly making its way through the southern of the village.

Through all of this a small blond-haired child of only a handfull of years old could be seen running from the scene carrying a younger and smaller blond-haired child. Blood stained the child's clothes. The older child ran into an adjacent forest and hid amongst the brush. These two kids were the sons of a man named Damir Zhivago, a small-time merchant of this small human village. The older child who was holding his brother was Casimir, and the one being held was Cyril. Under any other circumstance, these two children would be victims of the fire, but they are actually the source of all of this destruction. They had been attacked while walking back home with their father, attacked by a lone wolf that had come into the village scavenging for food. The wolf attacked and bit down on the small and fragile arm of Cyril, breaking the bone.

To save his brother, Casimir had to do something that would put entire family's existence in the village in jeopardy. He conjured up fire from thin air, and sent it at the wolf, catching it aflame. Unfortunately after being caught on fire the animal seemingly tried to catch as many buildings as it could on fire as well. Resulting in a fourth of the building turned into smoldering ash by the end of the incident. During the hysteria Casimir picked up his brother and ran, being seperated by his father in the process.

Casimir was running through the center of the village when he bumped into the village's elder and leader, Kenshin Yukimura, as he came out of his house going on his afternoon stroll, oblivious to the actions that were transpiring. He was fairly tall man with graying hair and a long, aging face. He wore a black robe and carried in his left hand a long, thin walking stick.

'That was Casimir's boy, I wonder what he's doing out so late... eh, he's probably running an errand.'

But soon Yukimura found out exactly what happened just by smelling the air.

'Wait, is that smoke? And that was Casimir running away... oh no...'

Kenshin Yukimura knew exactly what had happened, because he was one of the handful of people who knew Damir's secret. The mother of the two children was a youkai magician. Casimir, and to a certain extent Cyril, had inherited their mother's magical capabilities, however neither of them were able to control it and there's no one there to teach them how to control it. Damir had told Yukimura of it when they had first came to this village, and the elder had agreed to only have him and a select few people of the village council to know of it to keep it all a secret.

Yukimura ran as fast as he could to where the source of where the fire was to find Damir, and hopefully find that he was wrong. When he got to the center of the village he could see the growing fire in size. There were villagers rushing from their houses and getting away from the fire, while others futility tried to put it out. Through te crowd Yukimura saw Damir by his out of place blonde hair. He made his way through the crowd, reached Damir, and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Wha- Oh, it's you Yukimura."

"Damir, what happened here?!"

"It all happened so fast Yukimura, there was a wolf. It attacked Cyril and broke his arm, and Casimir, he started the fire... I'm sorry, I should have been more careful."

"It wasn't your fault Damir, I know you didn't mean for this to happen. For now let's just go try to find your sons."

"But what are we to do after? We can't live here anymore, not after this."

"We'll worry about that later for now just follow me, I saw the direction they were going in, we might be able to find them if we're quick."

* * *

In a stretch of forest north of the forest, Casimir was running amongst the brush with his younger brother in his arms with no destination other than away from the village. He doesn't know where his father was, he doesn't know what to do about his unconcious brother's arm, and he doesn't know what to do. Casimir came upon a small clearing and stopped to rest. He put Cyril down gently.

'I should've been quicker, I should've been more accurate, if I had done better none of this would've happened...'

Casimir slowly pulled up Cyril's sleeve over his right arm. The sight was ghastly. The bone was clearly snapped, one couldn't see the bone itself, but the fracture was evident and there was blood, and lots of it. If nothing was done soon Cyril would likely bleed out, or the infection itself would do the damage. Casimir shuddered at the sight of it.

'There's wolf teeth stuck in his arm...'

Being reminded of the animal that attacked his brother caused Casimir to become livid.

"If that vile creature had just not come near, if it hadn't have attacked my brother, I wouldn't had to do what I did! And none of this would have happened!"

As Casimir grew more angry, the ground underneath him started to smoke, and burn up. He looked down at the ground, and saw that a nearby flower had caught on fire due to his rage.

"...If the world wasn't so cruel, nothing would burn..."

There was a rustling in the brush behind Casimir, it caused him to whip around and stare at the area where the sound came from. But before he could get ready to do something he might regret, he heard the familiar voice of his father call out to him.

"Casimir, my son!" Damir came out from the thicket and ran to his son, and picked him up in an embrace. "There you are, are you alright?"

"I am, but Cyril he's-" Casimir stopped in the middle of his sentence when he saw the figure of Yukimura walking up behind Damir. "What is he doing here!?" Casimir said while backing up away from his father.

"Don't be scared Casimir." Damir said. "He's here to help us."

"How can you be so sure, he could be a liar, just like the others!" Casimir said. "It wouldn't be the first time someone's made a false promise to help us..."

"Casimir, this man is different."

"How so? Did he say he'd always be there!? Just like every other head of every other village we had to run from..." Casimir started to shake while looking at the ground. "Or did he say he'd help with mine and Cyril's 'problem', just like Mom said she would... They're all liars, just like her!"

"Casimir, that is enough! We can't keep running away from this, if we don't put that behind us and trust anyone we'll never find somewhere to live in peace."

"There is no peace in this world father, just catastrophe after catastrophe and the short amount of down time inbetween."

Before Damir could talk again, Yukimura grabbed his shoulder. "Allow me, I may be able to talk to him." Damir nodded and Yukimura stepped forward.

"Casimir, I'm sorry for causing you such distress, but I'm telling you, I'm not here for any nefarious reasons. Your father has told me of your family's plight and I don't wish to do anything but help."

Casimir eyed the old man suspiciously. " _Help_ us? I'm sure you do. Everybody wants to _help,_ don't they? Strangely enough though I feel like I've gotten more than enough _help_ in my life than I can stomach. People always claim to know the answer when they know _nothing!"_

Well, this kid is a little more venomous than I thought he would be.' Yukimura thought. "Casimir, don't let yourself be blinded by the past. If you do, you will never find the better future you desperately seek."

"He's right son, just let him help. He could be the answer to our problems, calm down and-"

"I won't calm down! Everytime this happens father, you're just blind to it al. I'm not going with _him._ And if that means not going with you too, well, I'll just have to deal with that later."

Damir went to say something, but Yukimura stopped him. "If you're going to leave, at least let us help Cyril. He needs it." Yukimura said.

"No, you won't take my brother way!" Casimir said as he started to step back to his brother. "If I'm going, he's going too!" Slowly smoke started to rise from the ground where Casimir stood. Damir noticed this and reacted quickly.

"Alright son, please don't do anything hasty. At least let us help him, he won't last long without it." Damir tried to step forward but stopped when he saw little flames start to form on the ground around Casimir.

"Don't move another step, or I'll do something we'll all regret." Casimir growled.

For a moment nearly everything was still, the only thing moving being the flames that had grew at Casimir's feet. Damir looked at his son forlornly, while Yukimura stood there trying to think of a way to diffuse the situation. If nothing were done someone would get hurt, namely himself or Damir.

Again Damir reached out for his son, but this time Casimir retailated. "Stop right there!" From his hands a wall of flame dispersed, hitting his father in the face who fell down with a scream of pain, clutching his eyes with one arm. Several nearby trees were also lit during the attack. Casimir quickly made his move, scooping up his brother and running towards the end of the clearing. Yukimura rushed to Damir's side, but he stopped him with his free arm.

"D-Don't worry over me, just please get my son before I lose him!" Damir yelled.

Yukimura swiftly got to his feet and was able to see Casimir disappear into the trees with his brother in his arms. The elder went to chase after the boy, but didn't get even halfway to the end of the clearing before he was stopped when the whole line of trees suddenly blew up in smoke and fire. He watched as the fire grew rapidly as a wall, keeping him from following. He stood there, as the wall grew higher and higher, unable to do anything to stop the flames.

"Something terrible has been born here, I just hope that maybe something... anything... will be able to stop it..." Yukimura whispered to himself.

* * *

 **There it is, finally after all this time I got this out. I'm going to try to not let something like this happen again where I don't upload anything for a LONG while. I just wasn't very motivated and kept changing ideas and styles with this. I might've switched ideas like 3 times and perspectives around 5 and this was the end result.**


	2. Chapter 1

I felt a bright light shining on my face. It was so strong that even with my eyes closed I could still see it through my eyelids, making what should've been a blanket of darkness one would see when shutting their eyes a muddied bright red tint of nothingness. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were strapped down to a cold, hard surface. I could hear two male voices, they kept cutting in and out of my range of hearing, making me only being able to make out an incomplete version of what they were saying. The first voice was stoic and crisp, not a word seemed to be wasted for pleasantries. The second was soft and was accompanied by an odd metallic tapping.

"... _what of that?"_

 _"Well... no importance, but the chances of..."_

 _"...shouldn't be a problem..."_

 _"True, like the others... very well could result in..."_

 _"Good... make it easier to..."_

I listened to the dueling male voices with a mixture of confusion and a deep foreboding feeling in my stomach. The voices drew closer, finally allowing me to make out the conversation. I noticed that the second softer voice had a strange tendency to pause every now and then while talking.

 _"A moldable mind is beneficial to our cause... All we would need to add is a little incentive...to get the desired results."_

 _"And incentive we will use, with this one and for the rest."_

 _"Is the child ready for operation? I feel as if this one could be the breakthrough we've been working for."_

 _"Soon he will be ready. I'm curious though, how has your progress gone with the rest of our experiments?"_

 _"Well, unfortunately for some of the more recent ones have suffered some...unforeseen side effects. Many of the subjects perished quickly, the rest endured some, but too did not survive."_

 _"Interesting. Perhaps our ways are not as refined as we once thought."_

 _"That's precisely why I have been working on this newest form of experimentation... I'm sure it will prove to be very successful."_

 _"May I hear of what you have in mind?"_

 _"Of course, I'm sure you will find it... quite up to your standards in terms of effectiveness."_

I heard the rapid metal taps coming to the table, and felt something hovering over me. I felt the intensity of the light fade and I slowly opened my eyes and allowed them to adjust. I wish that I hadn't however, because what I saw horrified me, freezing me on the spot with my eyes locked right onto the creature. The being was humanoid, and was adorned in a simple black cloak. He was suspended above me by six spider-like limbs. His face was uncanny,the most striking feature being his lack of a nose. The pupils of his eyes were solid black, there was no semblance of warmth in them. His eyebrows were black black, contrasting heavily with his blonde hair, and the eyebrows were in such a way that they seemed to not be made of hair. His arms just limply hanged at his side and his head rested on his right shoulder. Above all however, I noticed that his mouth was not a real mouth. It was that of a puppet.

 _"You see, I...wait... he seems to be awake brother."_

 _"Is he? Hmmm, well we could always just go on anyways. You can explain the finer details to me afterwards."_

 _"True, quite true, him being awake could have some curious effects... I'll go get the correct equipment..."_

The puppet man moved out of my line of sight, and soon the sound of his metallic legs disappear completely. I couldn't believe what I just saw, it was a living wooden doll. But how, how could such a thing exist? I was jolted out of my thoughts by the sound of a door being opened, with it came the tapping of a wooden cane. I then heard a deep, raspy voice talk to the other man.

 _"My lords, there seems to be a minor hiccup in our plans."_ The man said. _"It seems that the elder council finally found out about some of our work and have made their intentions to imprison us quite clear."_

 _"So they caught up with us didn't they? They accomplished that faster than I had thought they could, but no matter. We're fully able to deal with the 'threat' of imprisonment from those fools."_

 _"That was less concerning to me, but there is a bigger threat to use than the village."_

 _"What would that be?"_

 _"My source told me that they're going to try to enlist the help of a Shrine Maiden to help detain us, and it is possible that they already have."_

 _"A Shrine Maiden? This poses a more serious problem. I can deal with a small village, but Shrine Maidens are different, I'll need more time to prepare for such an outcome."_

 _"Agreed. What shall we do sir?"_

 _"It is imperative that we make the first move, we cannot allow them to act as they have and not suffer any consequences. We will go down to the village and act accordingly, don't bother taking any survivors from that village, we don't need any extra manual labor. After that we will leave, if they did contact a Shrine Maiden then there is a chance that we could be found out. And we cannot allow this type of situation to occur."_

 _"Understood."_

I heard the man leave, but I could hardly focus on this. Everything I was hearing, it put a horrible dread in my stomach. This man had just ordered for a complete wipeout of a village, how could one do something like that and speak of it so trivially? This man didn't care for life, that was obvious to me. It made me shiver to think what might be planned to happen to me.

As if an answer to my question, I heard the metal tapping of the doll's legs again. Soon the horrid voice of the doll man reached my ears.

 _"I have everything I need, I opted to leave any medication behind. After all we are in a rush... A little lack of proper_ _etiquette is warranted here in my mind."_

His face entered my vision, again forcing me to see him. I noticed this time as he talked that the only semblance of emotion that visibly appeared from this man was the movement of his eyebrows.

 _"The side effects of such trauma might be a bit extreme... But that certainly hasn't stopped me in the past."_

The man had an air of unpleasantness, something about him was innately abhorrent. The way he spoke made me feel like he's done many horrid things... and it was very likely that he is going to do something just as horrible to me.

 _"Well it's time that I stop waiting... I am on a time crunch after all."_

 _"Go ahead brother, I will meet you after the operation is over."_

I heard footsteps and the closing of a door. Then I saw the doll man reach over to something and pull back something. I froze when I saw it was a saw. It was serrated in such a way that one could call it sloppily crafted, for the way it was made would make it much more difficult to cut. But from the look the man was giving, I feel like this was purposely done. He must have noticed my face, for he spoke about the instrument.

 _"I know that this tool seems like a particularly unsafe... but in the right hands it can work wonders. I've operated on so many people that I've become very skilled at using it..."_

He started to bring the saw slowly down to my face.

 _"Compared to past patients you have a very good chance of pulling through the initial stages of this... Not nearly as many of my patients die within the first couple of minutes of operation as they used to...In fact I've even had some survive after the initial operation... Who knows, maybe you will be the lucky one to live longer than a week."_

The saw was mere inches from my face. This close up I could see a dark red hue near the serrations, I could tell that the saw hadn't been cleaned very well since its last usage. I could feel my whole body shaking. The closer the saw got, the more the terror inside me grew. I feel like crying, like screaming out for help, but I know nobody will come for me. I looked pass the saw into the eyes of my captor, and I felt cold. The formerly dead eyes were filled with a sick joy. He had stopped getting closer with the saw and seemed to be in a trance. But as soon as I noticed it, he snapped out of it.

 _"Sorry for the stalling, this is my favorite part of this process and I've been at a withdraw as of late so please excuse my unprofessional conduct."_

This time the doll man didn't stop the saw from reaching my face. I felt the cool metal touch the base of my forehead.

 _"You may want to brace yourself, things tend to get messy here."_

The pain that I felt in the next couple of seconds was searing, it felt like nothing I could ever imagine. I couldn't take it, it was too intense. I could feel the blood flowing off my face and the cruel metal cut into me like nothing. My own screams of agony sounded alien to me, I had never made noises so extreme before. Soon my torment reached a fever pitch, and I felt my consciousness fade until everything went black.


End file.
